Building a Castle

Burgundy vineyards in the heart of France. The year is 1229—that is, for the purposes of this project: to build a prince's château fort using only the techniques and tools of the 13th century. “The project has four main aims,” explains Macyline Martin, managing director for Guédelon. “The first is experimental archaeology—to try and verify all the theories, based on documents of the time. There's also a social aim, because this region is very poor, with high unemployment, so it provides jobs. Then there's tourism: the project couldn't work without visitors because a lot of money is needed to pay people working here and to run the site. And finally, we want to open experimental archaeology to everybody—because in France, history and architecture are still very much oriented to academics.” The idea for the project emerged about five years ago. It was the brainchild of Michel Guyot, who bought and renovated the nearby castle of Saint-Fargeau, which was built and rebuilt between the 10th and 18th centuries. Beneath his castle were the original foundations of the 13th-century building. Guyot thought it would be fun to construct a château to the same plans, but this proved too big to attempt. So Jacques Moulin, managing…